How To Install LAMP on Ubuntu 14.04

LAMP is a one of the most popular open source distribution and commonly used to run dynamic web application such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and many more. It’s a group of open source software including Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP that used to develop and run dynamic web application of software.

Installing LAMP on Ubuntu 14.04

In order to install LAMP you first need to install a Linux base operating system and I assume that you already have Ubuntu 14.04 installed that fulfill the first letter of LAMP. Now let’s install other software to complete LAMP installation.

Install Apache

Apache is a most popular web server software that is used by most of the web hosting companies and web sites. In order to install Apache we need to use meta package apache2 on terminal or Ubuntu software center. We are going to install Apache using terminal and Ubuntu package manager apt-

Lets get started by typing the following commands into the terminal:

first refresh app index using

sudo apt-get update

Install Apache

sudo apt-get install apache2

Wait a few seconds to get Apache installed. Once installed verify the installation by visiting the IP address. If you are installing on your local machine, You can verify your Apache installation using 127.0.0.1 on your web browser and If you are installing LAMP on Web server visit your web server IP address.

To find out your web server IP address, You can run the following command to get IP

curl http://icanhazip.com

By using above the method, You will get your IP address. Just copy and visit from any web browser to verify Apache installation. If Apache installed successfully, You will get a page like this by visiting your IP address.

Install MySQL

In order to install MySQL we need to use meta package mysql-server and MySQL module for PHP5.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server php5-mysql

While installing MySQL, MySQL will ask for set administrative user password. I strongly recommend using a password for administrative user. In my case the administrative user name is root.

Now run mysql_secure_installation. It will remove any test user on MySQL database, Disable root login from outside of localhost and remove test database as well. This command also presents the opportunity to change administrative password. During the command execute, MySQL will ask you to choose answer for basic settings. You can leave the settings default by hitting enter when question asked by MySQL.

Install PHP

PHP is the last software to install in order to complete the installation of LAMP. So why wait, Lets start:

Install PHP…

sudo apt-get install php5 php5-mcrypt libapache2-mod-php5

The above command will install PHP5 and 2 modules without any problem.

If you are planning to host static HTML based website then you are ready to go, But if you are planning to host dynamic website or application such as WordPress, Drupal or Joomla, You need to make a change to Apache’s configuration. By default Apache serves files when a directory is requested and Apache first look for index.html file and we need to change it from index.htmlto index.php.

In order to do that, Open dir.conf file in a text editor

sudo nano /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dir.conf

Now in this file replace index.html with index.php and index.php to index.html. By doing this, index.phpwill move to the first position. Now Apache will first look for index.php instead index.html.

Test PHP processing

The LAMP stack should be working fine, But if you want to check php processing on your server, Do the following:

Create a php scripts on your server’s root directory var/www/html

sudo nano /var/www/html/info.php

Put the following script inside the blank file.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

save the file and restart Apache server sudo service apache2 restart

Now visit http://your-server-ip/info.php

This page will give you information about your webserver and PHP processing. If this page appear, Your PHP is processing. Now you have LAMP stack installed.